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Who really said it

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page

Not Augustine of Hippo — actually Richard Lassels Richard Lassels c. 1603–1668 · English priest, tutor & travel writer
Disputed Free to reuse

The travel line comes from the preface to Lassels’s The Voyage of Italy (1670): “They that never stir from home, read only one page of this Book.” Lassels credited Augustine only with calling the world “a great book”. Later compilers gave Augustine the whole sentence, and the familiar wording is a modern condensation.

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page” Richard Lassels, The Voyage of Italy (1670), preface. Often misattributed to Augustine of Hippo. (Quotle.info) · Verbatim: “If this world be a great book, as S. Augustine calls it, none study this great Book so much as the Traveler. They that never stir from home, read only one page of this Book.”

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Augustine of Hippo. Use the credit shown above instead.

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In context

Evoking the world of Richard Lassels — English Roman Catholic priest, travelling tutor & travel writer. Theme: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line really comes from

Work
The Voyage of Italy, or A Compleat Journey through Italy
Section
A Preface to the Reader Concerning Travelling
Published
Printed at Paris, sold in London by John Starkey, 1670
Author
Richard Lassels (posthumous)

… the Profit of Travelling; it’s certain, that if this world be a great book, as S. Augustine calls it, none study this great Book so much as the Traveler. They that never stir from home, read only one page of this Book; and like the dull fellow in Pliny, who could never learn to count farther than five, they dwell alwayes upon one Lesson. Preface, 1670

Transcription as given by Quote Investigator. The 1670 print uses period spelling and the long s. Notice that Lassels gives Augustine only the “great book” image. The one-page line is his own.

1670 first edition, scanned (Internet Archive)
The Voyage of Italy (1670) on Internet Archive
Quote Investigator: The World Is a Book, and Those Who Do Not Travel Read Only One Page

How we know

  • Quote Investigator ↗ found no substantive evidence for Augustine. Its earliest match is the preface to Richard Lassels’s The Voyage of Italy (1670), and it concludes that the Augustine credit came from a misreading of Lassels.
  • An Internet Archive scan of the 1670 edition ↗ contains the passage: the world as “a great book, as S. Augustine calls it,” and those who never stir from home reading one page of it.
  • Wikiquote ↗ lists the line among Augustine’s Misattributed quotes and says it has not been found in his writings.
  • In 1824, Select Proverbs of All Nations ↗ gave the condensed proverb (“The world is a great book, of which they that never stir from home read only a page”) a bare “Augustine” credit.
Public domain

The source passage is from Richard Lassels’s The Voyage of Italy, first published in 1670. That is long before 1931, so it is in the US public domain. The shorter modern wording (“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page”) is an anonymous condensation of Lassels and has no identifiable author of its own.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Why the wrong names stick

This saying has been credited to at least five people. Augustine is the most common choice. According to Quote Investigator, the credit grew out of a 1670 sentence that mentioned him by name.

Augustine of Hippo Most common

Augustine did call the world a book. Quote Investigator quotes a letter: “Our greater book is the world; in it I read fulfilled what in the book of God I read promised.” But that passage is about God’s promises, not travel. Lassels cited him for the image alone. According to Quote Investigator ↗, later writers credited Augustine with the whole statement: “A. R.” in 1757, John Feltham in 1799 and Thomas Fielding in 1824.

Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron French version

His Le Cosmopolite, ou le Citoyen du Monde opens with a French version, without attribution: “L’Univers est une espece de livre, dont on n’a lu que la premiere page quand on n’a vu que son Pays” (text at Wikisource ↗). Quote Investigator dates the book to 1750, eighty years after Lassels.

Lord Byron Epigraph

Byron reprinted the Fougeret de Monbron passage, in French, on the title page of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. That gave the passage wide circulation, according to Quote Investigator ↗, but Byron was quoting it, not writing it.

Stendhal and Lamartine Stray credits

A 1907 issue of The Editor credited a version to Stendhal. In 1936 a reader’s letter in the New York Times credited a French version to “Lamartine”. Quote Investigator ↗ found no substantive support for either.

The person who first wrote the travel line is Richard Lassels, in the preface to The Voyage of Italy (1670). He borrowed only the “world is a book” image from Augustine (Quote Investigator ↗).

Context

Why it mattered

Lassels wrote for young English gentlemen setting out on what Wikipedia ↗ credits him with naming the Grand Tour. His preface makes the case for “the Profit of Travelling”, and the one-page image is its opening argument: someone who stays home keeps rereading the same lesson.

Naming Augustine in that argument gave it authority. Once the sentence was cut down to a proverb, Augustine’s name stayed attached and Lassels’s fell away. Proverb collections from 1824 onward print it under “Augustine”, and the modern wording has kept that credit.

They that never stir from home, read only one page of this Book.

What Augustine actually meant by “the world as a book”

In the letter that Quote Investigator ↗ cites, Augustine writes “Major liber noster orbis terrarum est”: our greater book is the world, where he reads fulfilled what Scripture promised. The image is about seeing God’s word come true across the world. It does not urge anyone to travel.

WIST ↗ labels the travel version “Spurious” and notes that Augustine did not mean the image as encouragement to travel.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Knowledge Growth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: The World Is a Bookquoteinvestigator.com

The main investigation: credits Richard Lassels (1670), traces the Augustine misattribution and every later variant.
Wikiquote: Augustine of Hippo (Misattributed)en.wikiquote.org

Lists the line as misattributed and says it is not found in Augustine's writings.
The Voyage of Italy (1670), scannedarchive.org

Full scan of Lassels's 1670 first edition. The passage is in the preface on travel.
Select Proverbs of All Nations (1824)archive.org

An early proverb collection that prints the condensed line under the name Augustine.
Le Cosmopolite, ou le Citoyen du mondefr.wikisource.org

Full French text of Fougeret de Monbron's book, which opens with the universe-as-book version.
WIST: Augustine of Hippo, spuriouswist.info

Quotation reference that marks the Augustine attribution as spurious and explains the metaphor's real sense.

The real author

Who Richard Lassels was

Richard Lassels

c. 1603–1668 · English Roman Catholic priest, travelling tutor & travel writer

Richard Lassels was an English Roman Catholic priest and travel writer. He guided young English nobles through Italy as a tutor and died in Montpellier in 1668. His guide The Voyage of Italy was edited by his fellow priest Simon Wilson and published after his death, in Paris and London in 1670. Wikipedia credits him with coining the term Grand Tour.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Richard Lassels, The Voyage of Italy, or A Compleat Journey through Italy, “A Preface to the Reader Concerning Travelling,” unnumbered page (Paris; sold in London by John Starkey, 1670). Attribution traced by Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: The World Is a Book, and Those Who Do Not Travel Read Only One Page,” September 25, 2025.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-world-is-a-book-and-those-who-do-not-travel-read-only/

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